SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell defended Elon Musk against sexual harassment allegations in an email to employees Monday, to which the company CEO responded in a tweet.
Musk has denied a claim by a flight attendant that he rubbed his leg without consent on a private company jet in 2016 and exposed his penis to her and exposing her leg without consent. She was reportedly paid $250,000 as part of a severance agreement in 2018.
Shotwell said she does not believe the claim.
She wrote that I believe the allegations are false, not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never heard anything similar to these allegations.
Musk said he doesn't use a flight attendant because he didn't respond to a tweet about the email.
Astute observers of my plane and there many will note that I don't use a flight attendant, he wrote. On the plane, only fruit nuts are stocked. I use flights as an opportunity to fast. According to the report, the flight attendant worked in the cabin crew on a contract basis. She told a friend that SpaceX encouraged her to get licensed as a masseuse, so she could give Musk massages, Business Insider reported. She said Musk propositioned her during a massage.
In response to the report, Musk questioned who the friend was, calling her a far left activist actress in LA with a major political axe to grind. He stated that the Insider report was an attempt to interfere with his acquisition of Twitter.
The allegations were politically motivated, according to the SpaceX CEO. The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens, but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech, he wrote in a May 19 tweet. A day before that tweet, Musk said that political attacks on him would escalate dramatically. Musk has recently announced that he will take it private, but he suggested Saturday that the buyout price should be slashed by the number of bot accounts on the platform.